Idoit40fans wrote:Kunitz Crosby Dupuis is a no brainer and that Morrow Sutter Cooke line is going to be legendary if the Pens go anywhere in the playoffs. Talent will come out in the Iginla Malkin Neal line.

Malkin seems like he really been trying hard to make it "click" with Iginla the past 2 games -- so much so that he's been over-passing to Iginla when he (Malkin) clearly has a shot to take. Not sure I like it, but I hope it starts working soon.

I think Iginla has demonstrated the type of shooting ability that would both compliment Sid's ability to hit a guy's wheelhouse in traffic and creates space for a secondary shooter with some ability to go to the net. That means you could put Kunitz or Morrow with Sid in different situations. Its been my opinion since we picked up Iginla that the Captain Line makes too much sense not to put out there, then put the big shooters with Malkin, Neal, and Dupuis on the second line. This would let you move Morrow/Kunitz/Dupuis around on the first three lines, and gives you defensive compliments that can really augment the matchups.

Another thing it does... you could potentially put Sid or Geno with the fourth line guys, that will likely include Bennett or Kennedy, both who have the ability to score. Pretty scary for defenses to get lined up againts a 4th line that becomes a cycling/scoring like by swapping out a center...

Idoit40fans wrote:Kunitz Crosby Dupuis is a no brainer and that Morrow Sutter Cooke line is going to be legendary if the Pens go anywhere in the playoffs. Talent will come out in the Iginla Malkin Neal line.

Malkin seems like he really been trying hard to make it "click" with Iginla the past 2 games -- so much so that he's been over-passing to Iginla when he (Malkin) clearly has a shot to take. Not sure I like it, but I hope it starts working soon.

sil wrote:Sutter has to play. He simply has to. We have no other forward who does what he does in the defensive zone.

didn't know he was getting scratched.

if you spread the talent in the bottom 6, their playing time starts to equalize. for 3rd line to 4th line, it's now about 13 min to 8 min of ES time. you can probably get it to 11 min to 10 min with a little planning. even if it's something like 12 to 9, jokinen has easily been 3 minutes a game better than sutter in his time here.

I think most of that has do with him being a stop-gap for Sid's absense. They just aren't the same type of player (Sutter and Jokinen) nor do we need them to be. Sutter will remain in his role, and remain getting his third line minutes, and Jokinen won't replace that spot when Sid comes back. You didn't directly state that you thought he would, but you did directly state that Jokinen is a better player. That I really don't agree with, at least not from a traditional third line center point of view. And I do acknowledge you aren't stating Jokinen should be in that spot over Sutter.

Jokinen really gives us someone who can pretty much play anywhere he's needed in the postseason, and that's a wonderful thing to have, but I still don't think Jokinen is the better player. If it came down to it, and one of those two had to be the scratch...I'd scratch Jokinen in favor of Sutter.

Kunitz needs to play with Malkin and Neal.Iginla needs to play with Sid and Dupuis.Third line has to be Morrow, Jokinen and BB.And sorry but Sutter is now a fourth line center on this team. He'd be fortunate to be out there with Cooke and MFCA.Kennedy and Glass have played themselves out of a spot IMHO.

Geno is obviously hurting so give him players that he has shown an ability to gel with. Enough with the juggling HCDB.

Jokinen has been the best forward on the team these past 3 weeks. It'd be dumb to banish him to the fourth line. Put Cooke on the 4th line. While still having a lot of value as a PKer, he doesn't bring that much 5 on 5.